Apple is nothing without its reputation for impeccable design, but its long streak of highly desirable accessories came to a screeching halt today with the debut of a hideous monstrosity called the Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 6 and 6s.
As its name suggests, the Smart Battery Case offers an extended power solution for iPhone 6 and 6s owners—no Plus variant is available at the moment. However, its battery-extending properties come with two huge caveats. First, the $99 price tag, which when compared to similar accessories from Mophie and its competitors, is definitely on the high end; and second, just look at what it does to your iPhone:
Apple
For a company that seems to value product aesthetics almost to a fault, this is a colossal misstep. Granted, battery cases are pretty much universally considered to be ugly additions to any sleek smartphone design, but Apple has always been the company that came up with solutions where none seemed to exist. This is not a solution to the ugly battery case problem, it’s simply another entry to toss on top of the pile of horrific designs.
The Smart Battery Case also a tacit admission that the iPhone design has become so thin that battery life is a standard complaint. Producing a sleek, sexy, ultra-thin smartphone design and then introducing a hideous covering that adds more power is a puzzling move that, if it had been committed by Google or Samsung, would be derided by iPhone owners the world over.
Predictably, the accessory is being universally panned by iPhone owners. Reviews suggest the case works just fine to add a good bit of extra battery life to the phone, but there are countless other bulky cases that do the same thing for half the price, and look just as ugly doing it.
Photo via ilamont/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)